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Strava Suffer Scores

by Nixster
Fri, Jan 23, 2015 16:50
7

I bought a Bluetooth HRM for very little dosh to use with Strava and am now getting 'Suffer Scores' for my rides.

I understand that these are based on weighted time spent in particular heart rate zones to give in effect a training 'dosage'.

Having corrected my max HR to something more sensible, this is all good. (I haven't done a ramp test yet but am confident that HRmax is within a few bpm of the likely figure based on using a HRM for a few years running and on the bike).

My question then is this: how do I know whether the calculated dosage is high or low for my needs, how can I work out some targets using this info and what are the implications for recovery time frequency and duration? Okay that's three questions.

As my bike time is limited, I'm tending to go with higher intensities, with a majority of the shorter rides particularly being in the threshold zone. Longer weekend rides (when allowed) are more of a mix.

Thoughts on any of this, wise people of road.cc? 39

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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7 comments

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Nixster | 10 years ago
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Thanks all for your comments and get well soon abudhabiChris.
I've got Friel's book so I'll get into that.
I'm getting Suffer Scores in the 90's and 178 yesterday. Would be good to have a point of reference for those but I guess having a better structure to the training is more important.

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arfa | 10 years ago
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Thank you for the explanations and pointers. Sorry to hear of your accident AbudhabiChris and I hope your recuperation doesn't keep you off the bike for too long

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Shep73 | 10 years ago
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One thing I would recommend is doing the LTHR test, this is in Joe friel's Cyclist's Training Bible. It will give you a better idea of your HR zones. If you want to improve or train more seriously his book is worth reading. The LTHR test you can do several times over the training period and you will see improvement as you get fitter. It's aimed or racing but there is plenty to be taken out of it for the novice.

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/04/determining-your-lthr.html

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arfa | 10 years ago
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Is freshness and fatigue based around speed for a given gradient and heart rate ? The reason I ask is that I ride both road and mountain bike and with alot of mud around this time of year, I am much slower going uphill through putty on the mountain bike and working much harder than I would be on tarmac on a roadie. It might explain what looks like highly erratic readings on this function for me ?

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KirinChris replied to arfa | 10 years ago
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arfa wrote:

Is freshness and fatigue based around speed for a given gradient and heart rate ? The reason I ask is that I ride both road and mountain bike and with alot of mud around this time of year, I am much slower going uphill through putty on the mountain bike and working much harder than I would be on tarmac on a roadie. It might explain what looks like highly erratic readings on this function for me ?

Speed shouldn't come into it as far as I'm aware and according to the explanation on the Strava site.

It's based on HR and (if available) Power which are independent of speed.

The Fatigue will go up and down quite quickly - Fitness should change more slowly, as it is based on longer-term training trends.

I wouldn't try to follow it too much outside pretty regular training. It's all got to be taken with some common sense and grains of salt.

For example I've had several weeks off the bike after a bad accident. According to Strava my peak Form (33) was after two weeks of doing absolutely nothing.

Quite apart from the fact that my hip is being held together by steel pins I don't believe two weeks off the bike would actually improve my performance over being in regular training.

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Goyt | 10 years ago
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Thanks for that comment, I got a HRM at christmas and have just started the Strava premium trial. The fitness and fatigue section looks like it tracks very helpful information and seems to be a decent benefit of the premium account.

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KirinChris | 10 years ago
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Suffer Score on its own is pretty limited.

Do you have Strava Premium - if you do then you can analyse the elements linked to the Score. Fitness is chronic or long-term training Load), Fatigue is acute or daily training load and Freshness or Form is the balance between them.

It varies for individuals but typically I would be going well into negative Form (up to say -30) on my hard weeks and if I'm looking to be ready for a race or event, or I have a light week then I'm getting up to around +10 to +20.

On its own though the Suffer Score is too broad to be useful other than to maybe keep track of a cumulative weekly score.

For example a few weeks ago I did a hellish session of step intervals - 15-30-45-60-75-90 seconds at 400+ watts with equivalent rest periods followed by 2x5 minutes at 360 watts. My '100%' is about 340 so it was bloody hard. Suffer Score 47.

A few days later I did an easy ride where I barely went above 300 watts and the average was about 250, but it was longer in distance and time and the suffer score was 42 - and I think would have been higher except it was so cold my HRM didn't pick up the signal for 30 minutes.

So Suffer Score doesn't adequately convey the difference in those sessions. You still have to use your HR (power would be better) to structure each ride if you want to use it for training.

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